Category: graphic novels

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Memory in Laura Jones’ “My Life in Movies”

This semester, I am thoroughly enjoying teaching my Literature and Composition Graphic Memoirs class. There is so much to unpack, and we haven’t even gotten to the book-length memoirs yet. Recently, I had students read excerpts from Lillian Smith’s The Journey and a section of Laura Jones’ My Life in Movies. Today, I want to talk about the ways that these seemingly disparate texts, … Read More Memory in Laura Jones’ “My Life in Movies”

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Empathy in John Ira Jennings and Damian Duffy’s “Parable of the Sower”

During the camp season at Laurel Falls, Lillian Smith would write letters home to the parents of campers. In the mid-summer 1946 Laurel Leaf, she wrote to parents about the adventures of Buss Eye, the plays that the girls wrote, and other camp activities. Near the end of the letter, she writes about the conversations that the campers had after hearing about the lynching … Read More Empathy in John Ira Jennings and Damian Duffy’s “Parable of the Sower”

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“Memory is a wily keeper of the past”: The Narrative of Memory

Throughout our lives, we create memories, then we reconstruct those memories, and they appear again and again within our mind. For me, one memory that always pops up concerns a time when I was a kid, riding a four-wheeler at my grandfather’s camp. I sat down on the seat, my dad sitting behind me, and I pulled the throttle back with my right hand. … Read More “Memory is a wily keeper of the past”: The Narrative of Memory

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Literature and Composition Graphic Memoirs Syllabus

This semester, I am teaching a literature and composition course. It has been a few years since I have taught a course like this, and this semester, I am approaching it a little bit differently. I have taught graphic nrratives in my courses before, but I have not used them exclusively. After hearing from a colleague who has done something similar, I thought I … Read More Literature and Composition Graphic Memoirs Syllabus

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The Official Record in Van Jensen and Nate Powell’s “Two Dead”

The back matter of Van Jensen and Nate Powell’s new book, Two Dead, describes it as, “at once a white-knuckled and unputdownable thriller, a roman à clef inspired by true events, and a book about post-traumatic stress disorder and the underlying social traumas of how war and segregation affect their survivors on all fronts.” Today, I want to look at a brief section from … Read More The Official Record in Van Jensen and Nate Powell’s “Two Dead”